Experience using the various tools of the social web, such as surveys or forms for sourcing, texting or messaging platforms. YES, MORE THAN YESTERDAY, LESS THAN TOMORROW with paper and pen and 3 x 5 cards as old fashioned compensatory strategies

Aug 20, 2016 – “#ProPublica is Hiring an Engagement Reporter” “Assignment: Give us a few thoughts on how you would have gone about re-imagining and executing a project …

Experience with social and website metrics, since you will be in charge of analyzing what’s working, what’s not, and what we should differently next time. Yes, limited, but compensate with intuition. Use of FB ads is a mystery unto it’s own, and simple google searches give a good, broad, simple overview of what’s working and what isn’t.

Does this sound like a new job to you? That’s because it is. Part of what we’re looking for is somebody who is excited about helping us build it. YES, YES, I WOULD LOVE TO HELP YOUR TEAM BUILD IT. I CAN PROVIDE INSIGHTS THAT MAY BE SOMEWHAT UNUSUAL AND VERY EFFECTIVE.

Furthermore:

INSULT TO INJURY – THE DEMOLITION OF WORKERS COMPENSATION must go many layers deeper. There must be hundreds if not thousands of ‘stories’ that were submitted but not used. Like Convicts in Penitentiaries, a return to those same writers, may find the story exactly the same, or even worse.

Many people ‘in the streets’ shared they submitted their stories, more than once, without response. While Injured Workers are thrilled at the Awards and all the Hard Work that went into those reports, a thank you note to those who submitted stories would have gone a long way to establish trust and credibility in those still fighting for their lives in the system.

Please see my current blog about a Facebook Virtual Tour of the pain and suffering discussed behind those walls…. Injured Worker groups, pages, events and desperation.

“….give us a few thoughts on how you would have gone about re-imagining and executing a project we did last year about the demolition of worker’s comp protections around the country. How could we connect to the people actually impacted by the story, and how could they have contributed to the project? *..”

This entire application has several ideas that can be further developed to involve contributors in the project du jour. Let’s hope that 2017 will see INSULT TO INJURY- ENCORE, that may also include serious investigations into allegations of unclean hands between WorkComp and Social Security and State Disability agencies, in possible acts of RICO type malfeasance and worse.

Some Injured Workers have signed petitions, one circulating has nearly 6,000 signatures, all ignored by the “Top 22 Industry Bloggers” who twist and distort public opinion with a heavy dose of “extend and pretend.” Those avenues need further investigations, particularly since the death of David Paolo, the leading spoke person for the industry. They can be encouraged to be a part of solutions, or they continue to put profits before lives.

This ProPublica Engagement Reporter project absolutely sounds like a Project I could contribute mightily to. I have been doing very similar work for the past nearly 5 years, as part of self-rehabilitation, survival, and serving the common good.

Each time I have experienced CENSORSHIP I have chosen to learn new social media skills. A quick google search of a few my memes is illustrative of what can be done, even as a member of ‘marginalized communities’ in rural America.

“WE ARE THE MEDIA NOW”?? Google results are fascinating. This was a gut level response to Corporate Censorship of the Global Nuclear Disaster, Fukushima triple nuclear meltdowns of March 11, 2011.

As we, concerned citizens, watched the censors at work with scrubbing the internet (In 2012, Fukushima brought google results of more than 62,000,000. Today, not so much. It is primarily industry propaganda that floats to the top of a google search, with bizarre tales of fake remedies to ‘clean up’ the meltdowns, and hand wringing about expensive ice walls that failed, to Geiger countered monkeys in Japan and elsewhere, including the USA, chanting ‘There is No Immediate Danger” while the USA radiation levels escalate, deaths increase, and corporate media makes stuff up to explain away the ‘mysterious, baffling, befuddling, perplexing’ nonsense.

I can be most helpful to a ProPublica team with the next phase of INSULT TO INJURY: THE DEMOLITION OF WORKERS COMPENSATION. The 2015 reports caused quite a stir in the industry, and in early 2016, they began to rumble about retaliation, in the cloak of a National Discussion [to mitigate profit losses from the ProPublica/NPR telling of the OPEN SECRETS, that everybody knows.]

In May, I was personally attacked for several weeks by Industry spokes people, with vicious diatribes, that graciously included links to several of my blogs. My professional friends suggested that they had to kick somebody after the ProPublica/NPR reports, and what an easy mark would be one of the very very few Injured Workers who blogs, in rural America, with a brain injury.

Despicable? Yes, absolutely. Personal, not likely. The money trail never lies, does it. Hurtful? You betcha!

One of the parties spoke very highly of me in 2014, and had been very kind and gracious to me as he and his team studied my case, discussed it at panels, and even wrote several articles based on the unique manner in which I fought back, and the complications of the case. (Michael Grabell was actually encouraged by a few people to consider my story for INSULT TO INJURY, but alas, it must have been “too hot” or “too messy.”)

I was also encouraged to have a discussion with an Al Jazeera producer doing a story on Workers Compensation, but

The only thing I know of that changed is that without benefit of competent legal counsel, the parties to my very public case reached resolution, subject to a confidentiality agreement. Or maybe he was just ‘following orders.’

The defense counsel even sent, at the end, what seemed to be a warm and sincere best wishes communication. My friends laughed, but I chose to believe it was real.

As to the Viet Nam era Veterans and Agent Orange, as I am sure the ProPublica Reporters know, are for the most part, SERIOUS PATRIOTS, tossed aside by our government officials, for more profits before lives. No Veteran would leave a buddy on the battle field and I suspect that as you open those investigations, you will find another Pandora’s Box.

[Left out about Fukushima US Sailors dying of radiation poisoning from the USS Ronald Reagan of March 2011; a huge national alarm!]

PLEASE BE ABSOLUTELY CERTAIN THAT IF YOU TAKE AND TELL THEIR STORIES, YOU DON’T KICK THEM TO THE CURB AFTER AWARDS ARE WON. PLEASE BE ABSOLUTELY CERTAIN THAT YOU ADDRESS THE CURRENT WAR CASUALTIES, AND THE DEPELETED URANIUM THAT IS KILLILNG THEM, ALONG WITH THE HEAD INJURIES.

During the Viet Nam War, I kept friends and loved one in cookies and letters from home. None returned whole, and some did not return at all. Many veterans are further abused in the Workers Compensation and Social Security Systems. America treats her military personnel like ‘throw aways’…. Expose that, and you’ll get awards from the people! See these articles, and perhaps make it required reading and listening for any people on the new project:

While relocation to New York City is impractical for me, as is a 40-hour work week, I would love to explore the possibilities of a consulting position, in a virtual capacity. A quick google search shows that I am a serious Warrior. LinkedIn and the ability to reach influencers was a significant part of my Survival Strategy and success in the Workers Compensation issues, and may be called into play again as the Social Security improprieties Head of the Hydra is on the horizon.

While in the Workers’ Compensation system, no doctor would would release me to return to work, and I told my current doctor that I would be applying for this position. His eyes got very big and he suggested pursuing it in a virtual capacity, and perhaps as a consultant to be a part of the team. I told the doctor that the job description sounds like it was addressed right to me, so it would be a mistake to not make contact.

Social Security apparently allows me a 9 month trial-return-to-work without interruption to my benefits and I would be open to a 9 month trial-return-to-work consulting position around the WorkComp Encore project, with a willingness to provide transferrable strategies to the community doing the Veteran project. The pending outcome of some very challenging misrepresentations and mistakes by the SSA could be another project unto it’s own for ProPublica and NPR.

The 10 Congressional Representatives who signed the October 2015 letter to the Department of Labor have also been apprised of the “Magic Math” of SSA, and the extreme hardships and litigation it has subjected me to. This is a pattern and practice that Injured Workers warn one another to expect. It costs injured workers AND TAXPAYERS. If there are an estimated 45 million people on Social Security Disability, and 8.9 million are injured workers, what happens to those in that gap??

Other avenues for the WorkComp encore include interviewing doctors and lawyers who have left the industry because of the hyper corruption, and those who stay and try to honor their oath to DO NO HARM.

The movement by Dr. Pamel Wible, IdealMedicalCare.org, is worth a serious look. She addresses why doctors kill themselves, and her TedMed talk could be required viewing for the WorkComp and Veteran project teams. While doctors on the dole don’t tend to kill themselves, the message applies also to WorkComp.

I like to make every effort count, since every effort takes so much from me. I will include this entire application in a blog at MyWorkCompCoach.com in hopes of inciting further discussions, and perhaps support for The Demolition of Workers Compensation – ENCORE and the Poisoned Veterans investigations for the Viet Nam era Veterans, and the current War veterans, and their many health challenges.

“Please upload a single file that includes: Why your experience gives you the skills and insight to be our engagement reporter; examples of your work that fits with what you’re talking about (please include a description about your role and the thoughts behind each project); finally, give us a few thoughts on how you would have gone about re-imagining and executing a project we did last year about the demolition of worker’s comp protections around the country. How could we connect to the people actually impacted by the story, and how could they have contributed to the project? Please upload a single file that includes: Why your experience gives you the skills and insight to be our engagement reporter; examples of your work that fits with what you’re talking about (please include a description about your role and the thoughts behind each project); finally, give us a few thoughts on how you would have gone about re-imagining and executing a project we did last year about the demolition of worker’s comp protections around the country. How could we connect to the people actually impacted by the story, and how could they have contributed to the project? *”

Thank you for the opportunity to update my resume in order to apply for the position, and to provide some insights ‘from the streets.’

The Work ProPublica is doing is important…. WorkComp was the tip of the iceberg….let’s go deeper there…. Root out the causes and thereby FREE THE HOSTAGES.

Veterans have told me that Injured Workers caught in the system would be well advised to conduct themselves as military personnel are trained to when they are taken hostage by enemy forces.

Sincerely,

Linda Ayres

ProPublica is Hiring an Engagement Reporter

ProPublica, Aug. 18, 2016, 6:11 p.m.

We are hiring an engagement reporter to work on investigative projects in collaboration with traditional reporters throughout the full life-cycle of projects. That means you’ll be involved from the very beginning of story conception to think about what communities and audiences we need to reach and how we reach them, all the way through to story publication and beyond. You’ll help find and reach an audience for the story, and most importantly you’ll be responsible for conceiving and executing a plan to pull our readers into the reporting of the story itself.

This is not just about social media. We assume you know how to do a Twitter collection and why social video is important. What we’re looking for is somebody who will find and reach the people actually impacted by a story, get them to inform our work and be a central player in the storytelling on all platforms to maximize the resonance of the project.

The work can be as a low-fi as flier, or as buzzy as a Facebook video, whatever is best for the story and project.

So what exactly are we talking about? Take a look at a project we’ve been doing about Vietnam vets exposed to Agent Orange. Unlike traditional investigations, we didn’t start with a story. We announced that we were doing an investigation with a callout to the community. We asked vets to tell us their stories, and we’ve now heard from more than 5,800 of them. This community has fueled our reporting, and it’s already getting results.

We also plan to do more projects where we work openly with and help foster communities of journalists. An example of that: our Red Cross Reporting Network.

Is all of that the kind of work you want to do? Here’s what we’re looking for:

A track record of organizing communities and audiences, especially in a journalistic context.

Name * Linda Ayres

Please upload a single file that includes: Why your experience gives you the skills and insight to be our engagement reporter; examples of your work that fits with what you’re talking about (please include a description about your role and the thoughts behind each project); finally, give us a few thoughts on how you would have gone about re-imagining and executing a project we did last year about the demolition of worker’s comp protections around the country. How could we connect to the people actually impacted by the story, and how could they have contributed to the project?Please upload a single file that includes: Why your experience gives you the skills and insight to be our engagement reporter; examples of your work that fits with what you’re talking about (please include a description about your role and the thoughts behind each project); finally, give us a few thoughts on how you would have gone about re-imagining and executing a project we did last year about the demolition of worker’s comp protections around the country. How could we connect to the people actually impacted by the story, and how could they have contributed to the project? *